The United States isn’t top dog anymore — not when it comes to installed wind power generating capacity, at least. This year, China surpassed the US, growing from 2,000 megawatts to 52,580 megawatts in only six years – and by 2020 the Chinese government projects that number will be 200,000 megawatts. That’s an incredible 96 percent increase over 6 years.

According to the Global Wind Energy Council, the Chinese wind power sector has had to surpass numerous challenges, including issues with the reliability of turbines and grid access to reach this level. “We have gone through a lot to reach this point,” says the deputy managing director of the State Grid Corporation Shu Yingbiao.

The State Grid Corporation is the largest utility company in China. In 2010 they released a statement about China’s investment in wind power, stating that “China’s record-breaking investment on wind power in the third quarters accounted for nearly half of the world’s gross investment on new wind power programs. The colossal investment ensured that one wind turbine would be in China out of every two manufactured in 2010 in the world.” It’s clear that China’s investments have paid off; the next obstacle in the process, according to the company, is to link the system to the national power grid. “The key problem is that regional connections are still weak, and there is not yet a unified national market and corresponding grid network,” stated Yingbiao.